Sunndal

Sunndal Municipality Sunndal kommune
Municipality
Sunndalen herred  (historic name)
View of the Øksendal valley
Flag Coat of arms
Møre og Romsdal within Norway
Sunndal within Møre og Romsdal
Coordinates: 62°36′46″N 08°38′03″E / 62.61278°N 8.63417°E / 62.61278; 8.63417
Country	Norway
County	Møre og Romsdal
District	Nordmøre
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Administrative centre	Sunndalsøra
Government
• Mayor (2009)	Ståle Refstie (Ap)
Area
• Total	1,713.36 km2 (661.53 sq mi)
• Land	1,647.89 km2 (636.25 sq mi)
• Water	65.49 km2 (25.29 sq mi)  3.8%
• Rank	#47 in Norway
Population  (2023)
• Total	7,110
• Rank	#141 in Norway
• Density	4.3/km2 (11/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	−1.3%
Demonym	Sunndaling[1]
Official language [2]
• Norwegian form	Neutral
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1563[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

Sunndal^ⓘ is a municipality in the Nordmøre region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Sunndalsøra. Other villages include Gjøra, Grøa, Hoelsand, Jordalsgrenda, Romfo, Ålvund, Ålvundeidet, and Øksendalsøra. With an area of 1,713 square kilometres (661 sq mi), it is the largest municipality in Møre og Romsdal county. The important occupations in Sunndal include industry (with Hydro Aluminium Sunndal as the biggest employer), public services, retail, and farming.

The 1,713-square-kilometre (661 sq mi) municipality is the 47th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway and it is the largest in Møre og Romsdal county. Sunndal is the 141st most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 7,110. The municipality's population density is 4.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (11/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 1.3% over the previous 10-year period.^[4][5]

The parish of Sunndal was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1854, the northern part of the municipality (population: 1,291) was separated to form the new municipality of Øksendal. This left 2,188 residents in Sunndal.^[6]

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1960, the neighboring municipalities of Ålvundeid (population: 513) and Øksendal (population: 497) were merged with Sunndal (population: 5,851) to form a new, larger Sunndal municipality. Both Ålvundeid and Øksendal were historically part of the municipality before 1854. Then, on 1 January 1965, the Ålvund-Ålvundfjorden area of the neighboring Stangvik Municipality (population: 508) was transferred to Sunndal.^[6]

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the Sunndalen valley (Old Norse: Sunndalr). The first element is sunnr or suðr which mean "southern". The last element is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".^[7] Historically, the name was spelled Sunddalen (or Sunndalen). In 1870, the spelling was changed to Sundalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Sunndal, adding an "n" and removing the definite form ending -en.^[8]

The coat of arms was granted on 12 April 1983. The official blazon is "Vert, a wormwood plant argent" (Norwegian: I grønt en sølv malurt). This means the arms have a green field (background) and the charge is a Norwegian wormwood (Artemisia norvegica) plant. The plant has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The design was chosen in a competition for the municipal arms. This design was chosen since this plant species is only found in a few places in the world. It has its main European distribution in Sunndal and neighboring Oppdal in the Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park and in Trollheimen landscape protection area. Small populations are also found in Ryfylke, Scotland, and the Ural Mountains, with another subspecies in the mountains of Northern America. This plant can be found in abundance in many places in the mountains of Sunndal well above tree line. The arms were designed by Svein Thuen Rasmussen. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^{[9][10][11][12]}

The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Sunndal. It is part of the Indre Nordmøre prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Møre.

Sunndal is bordered on the west by Molde Municipality and Tingvoll Municipality, on the north by Surnadal Municipality, on the east by Oppdal Municipality (in Trøndelag county) and on the south by Lesja Municipality (in Innlandet county).

In the southern part of the municipality lies the Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park, home to a plentiful amount of impressive muskox. In the northern part is the Trollheimen and Innerdalen landscape protection areas.

The municipality centers around the Sunndalsfjorden and the river Driva. There are also many towering mountains including: Trolla, Storskrymten, Vinnufjellet (with peaks Dronningkrona and Kongskrona), Innerdalstårnet, Salhøa, Såtbakkollen, Skarfjellet, and Vassnebba. The Vinnufossen and Svøufallet waterfalls both lie near the river Driva.

Sunndalsøra has a temperate oceanic climate (Cfb). Atlantic lows can produce a strong foehn effect in winter as the air is forced over the mountains surrounding Sunndalsøra. Sunndalsøra has the national record high for January and February. The record high 32.1 °C (89.8 °F) is from July 2014, and the record low −18.9 °C (−2.0 °F) is from February 2010.

Sunndal Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[15] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Møre og Romsdal District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Sunndal is made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

The mayors (Norwegian: ordfører) of Sunndal:^{[35][36][37][38]}

Tor Erik Jenstad, 2012

Andrine Hegerberg, 2018

Ada Hegerberg, 2017

• Barbara Arbuthnott (1822–1904), a Scottish woman who lived in Sunndal who engaged in charitable work and wrote about her life
• Hagbard Emanuel Berner (1839 in Sunndal – 1920), a jurist, politician, and newspaper editor
• Nils Sletbak (1896 in Sunndal – 1982), a jurist and theatre director
• Oskar Edøy (1916–2008), a politician and mayor of Sunndal from 1959-1973
• Einar Sæter (1917 in Øksendal – 2010), a triple jumper, resistance member, newspaper editor, and writer
• Tor Erik Jenstad (born 1956 in Sunndal), a linguist, dictionary editor, and traditional Norwegian folk musician
• Tove-Lise Torve (born 1964 in Sunndalsøra), a nurse, politician, and mayor of Sunndal from 2007-2009

• Tor Erik Torske (born 1983), a footballer with 275 club caps
• Andrine Hegerberg (born 1993 in Sunndalsøra), a footballer
• Guro Reiten (born 1994 in Sunndalsøra), a footballer
• Ada Hegerberg (born 1995), a footballer who was brought up in Sunndalsøra
• Oeyvind Nerland (born 1981), an oil and gas project manager with over 50 years of experience, Comedian and philanthropist

• Media related to Sunndal at Wikimedia Commons
• Møre og Romsdal travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Municipal fact sheet from Statistics Norway (in Norwegian)
• Sunndalsnett (in Norwegian)
• Culture in Sunndal on the map from Kulturnett.no (in Norwegian)
• Sunndal kommune (Municipality of Sunndal) (in Norwegian)